| abstract |
Disclosed is a novel polypeptide useful as a leader or trailer peptide moiety in recombinant DNA protein production techniques involving fused protein methodology. The polypeptide comprises an amphiphilic helix designed at the DNA level to have hydrophilic charged amino acid residues on one side of the barrel of the helix and nonpolar amino acid residues on the other side of the barrel of the helix. When DNA encoding the helix is attached to a gene encoding a protein of interest, high level expression is achieved and inclusion bodies are spontaneously formed. The inclusion bodies may be collected and purified easily by altering the ionic strength and/or pH of media used to dissolve the inclusion bodies. After purification, the fused protein is cleaved to separate the amphiphilic helix from the product. |